In this work, we present measurements of the height profile, wind velocity and sand flux performed on transverse dunes in the dune field known as “Lençóis Maranhenses”, northeastern Brazil. From the measured profile, we selected one dune to measure the air shear stress and the sand flux and compared the results with the theoretical predictions from a dune model in two dimensions recently introd...

The structure of the barchan field located between Tarfaya and Laayoune (Atlantic Sahara, Morroco) is quantitatively investigated and compared to that in La Pampa de la Joya (Arequipa, Peru). On the basis of field measurements, we show how the volume, the velocity and the output sand flux of a dune can be computed from the value of its body and horn widths. The dune size distribution is obtaine...

An endeavor to feel the pulse of a coast devastated by a powerful oceanographic event is made. Results of field investigations along Tamil Nadu seaside revealed that the tsunami of December 2004 demolished dwellings within strips ranging from 6 to 132 m (average width, 41 m) from the dune, and flooded up to 862 m (average, 247 m) from the shore. The event damaged sand dunes, ripped dune vegetat...

Coastal dunes, in particular foredunes, support a resilient ecosystem and reduce coastal vulnerability to storms. In contrast to dry desert dunes, coastal dunes arise from interactions between biological and physical processes. Ecologists have traditionally addressed coastal ecosystems by assuming that they adapt to preexisting dune topography, whereas geomorphologists have studied the properti...

The massive dune sea of the southern Namib Desert is approximately 800 km in length and some 140 km wide. These dunes are among the highest in the world and, in spite of very sparse vegetation cover, they support a surprising variety of reptiles and arthropods (Koch, 1961; Louw & Seely, 1982). A feature of the arthropod fauna is the high species diversity of flightless tenebrionid beetles. Thes...

Land surface emissivity (LSE) in the thermal infrared depends mainly on the ground cover and on changes in soil moisture. The LSE is a critical variable that affects the prediction accuracy of geophysical models requiring land surface temperature as an input, highlighting the need for an accurate derivation of LSE. The primary aim of this study was to test the hypothesis that diurnal changes in...